Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Education) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, Senator Birmingham; all they ever do is rack it up. This is another aspect of what I term ‘West End economics’. All Labor do is pile up debt. Occasionally, I agree, they balance the budget; that is true. On a couple of occasions Mr Keating did balance the budget. But did they ever pay off accumulated government debt? Never! Look at Australia’s political history. It is an absolute disgrace. With every state and federal Labor government and all the debt they created, what did they do? They never, ever paid it back. They left it to coalition governments to pay back the debt that they created. They are absolutely addicted to debt. That is what is in their DNA—not jobs; it is debt, and history shows up the lie. That party have never been able to pay off the debt that they created either state or federally in the last 109 years. It is absolutely disgraceful. I listened to Senator Arbib having a go at the coalition about economic management. It is absolutely appalling and these are the facts: the Queensland government representing four million people has racked up debt of $74 billion.